-Then get into Shoot. Think stand up Thai Boxing and ground submission grappling couldn't be farther from Aikido if you wanted to. Realize, too late, that it was founded in Japan, and therefore is something Japanese. And you still have to bow. AND use the term Sensei. (Well, we did when Eric Paulson visited in 1999.)
-And on top of that, you have to shelve out hundreds of dollars for bag gloves, boxing gloves, focus mitts, boxing hand wraps, those fingerless gloves, and Thai Boxing shorts that make your butt look too big.
-Realize you're doomed.
-Go join Kali. Hope it's safer.
-Shelve out hundreds of dollars for academy t-shirt, black sweat pants, Kali sticks, and a dagga (you forgot you still had your tanto, didn't you?).
-Realize that between getting your knuckles smashed by other beginners AND the manner in which Kali's complexity melts your brain, the hakama was Aikido's only drawback. Return to your old dojo.
-Hold rummage sale to sell rest of your supplies to poor martial artists. So you still have the blasted hakama, but at least you turned a tidy profit in the end. If only the swelling in your knuckles would go down.